James Matthew Barrie August Nemo Popular Books

James Matthew Barrie August Nemo Biography & Facts

Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations, in which he is Peter Pan's archenemy. The character is a pirate captain of the brig Jolly Roger. His two principal fears are the sight of his own blood (supposedly an unnatural colour) and the crocodile who pursues him after eating the hand cut off by Pan. An iron hook replaced his severed hand, which gave the pirate his name. Creation of the character Hook did not appear in early drafts of the play, wherein the capricious and coercive Peter Pan was closest to a "villain", but was created for a front-cloth scene (a cloth flown well downstage in front of which short scenes are played while big scene changes are "silently" carried out upstage) depicting the children's journey home. Later, Barrie expanded the scene, on the premise that children were fascinated by pirates, and expanded the role of the captain as the play developed. The character was originally cast to be played by Dorothea Baird, the actress playing Mary Darling, but Gerald du Maurier, already playing George Darling (and the brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies), persuaded Barrie to let him take the additional role instead, a casting tradition since replicated in many stage and film productions of the Peter Pan story. According to A. N. Wilson, Barrie "openly acknowledged [that] Hook and his obsession with the crocodile was an English version of Ahab", and there are other borrowings from Melville. Biography of the character Barrie states in the novel that "Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze". He is said to be "Blackbeard's bo'sun" and "the only man of whom Barbecue was afraid". (In Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, one of the names Long John Silver goes by is Barbecue.) In the play, it is implied that Hook attended Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, and his final words are "Floreat Etona", Eton's motto. In the novel, Hook's last words are a similarly upper-class "bad form", in disapproval of the way Peter Pan beats him by throwing him overboard. The book relates that Peter Pan began the ongoing rivalry between them by feeding the pirate's hand to a crocodile. After getting a taste of Hook, the crocodile pursues him relentlessly, but the ticking clock it has also swallowed warns Hook of its presence. Appearances Peter Pan (play) and Peter and Wendy (novel) Hook is described as "cadaverous" and "blackavised", with "eyes which were of the blue of the forget-me-not" ("save when he was plunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots appeared in them and lit them up horribly") and long dark curls resembling "black candles". In many pantomime performances of Peter Pan, Hook's hair is a wig and is accompanied by thick bushy eyebrows and moustache. The hook is fixed to his right hand (often changed to the left hand in film adaptations) and is used as a weapon. He is also described as having a "handsome countenance" and an "elegance of ... diction" – "even when he [is] swearing". Barrie describes "an attire associated with the name of Charles II, having heard it said in some earlier period of his career that he bore a strange resemblance to the ill-fated Stuarts". Hook's cigar holder enables him to smoke two cigars at once. Barrie also stated in "Captain Hook at Eton" that he was, "in a word, the handsomest man I have ever seen, though, at the same time, perhaps slightly disgusting". Although Hook is callous and bloodthirsty, Barrie makes it clear that these qualities make him a magnificent pirate and "not wholly unheroic". Disney version In the animated film Peter Pan (1953), Captain Hook is a far more comical villain than the original character: he is seen as a vain and dastardly coward with a childish temper who is prone to crying out in terror. During the film's early development, the story department analysed Hook's character as "a fop... Yet very mean, to the point of being murderous. This combination of traits should cause plenty of amusement whenever he talks or acts". Frank Thomas was the directing animator of Hook. According to Disney's Platinum release bonus features, Hook was modeled after a Spanish king. One director insisted that Hook should be a darker villain with no comedic traits; but this was refused for fear of frightening a juvenile audience, and Hook became a comical villain, equally matched with Peter Pan. Actor Hans Conried set the tone and pathos for Disney's interpretation of Hook, as he was the original voice for the Captain, as well as, in the tradition of the stage play, Mr. Darling, and performed live-action reference for the two characters. In subsequent Disney animation, Hook is voiced by Corey Burton. Hook seeks revenge on Peter Pan for having fed the crocodile his left hand and refuses to leave Neverland prior to this revenge. Throughout the film, Hook is supported by Mr. Smee. After promising Tinker Bell not to lay a finger (or a hook) on Peter Pan, he plants a bomb in Peter's hideout (instead of Barrie's vial of poison). At the conclusion of the film, Hook is chased by the crocodile into the distance, with the rest of the crew trying to save Hook. Walt Disney insisted on keeping Hook alive, as he said: "The audience will get to liking Hook, and they don't want to see him killed." Other film appearances In the sequel Return to Never Land (2002), Hook mistakes Wendy's daughter Jane for Wendy and uses her as bait to lure Peter Pan to his death. After this fails, he promises to take Jane home if she will help him find the island's treasure, and "not to harm a single hair on Peter Pan's head". This last promise is kept when he pulls a single hair from Peter's head, declaring "the rest of him is mine". At the end of the film, he and the crew are pursued into the distance by a giant octopus. Captain Hook is one of the Disney Villains who have a main focus in the direct-to-video anthology film Once Upon a Halloween. Captain Hook's origins are explored in the Disney Fairies film The Pirate Fairy, in which he is voiced by Tom Hiddleston. In the story, a young James years before he lost his hand, pretended to be a pirate ship's cabin boy and befriended a rebellious fairy Zarina who had left Pixie Hollow after being dismissed as a dust-keeper when her unauthorised experiments with pixie dust led to a disaster. James foresaw the great potential of the pixie dust and let Zarina think she had the authority over pirates. In The Simpsons short film Welcome to the Club, Captain Hook (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) appears along with other Disney Villains trying to convince Lisa Simpson how fun it is to be a villain. Jude Law portrays Captain Hook in Disney's live-action film Peter Pan & Wendy, which loosely adapts material from the 1953 animated film. Unlike the animated version, his hook is his right arm. Unlike Barrie's original play and l.... Discover the James Matthew Barrie August Nemo popular books. Find the top 100 most popular James Matthew Barrie August Nemo books.